How Long Does A Federal Criminal Appeal Take?

If you or a loved one have been convicted of a federal crime, and you want to bring a federal criminal appeal, you likely are very interested in knowing how long a federal criminal appeal will take.

In this short video, federal criminal defense attorney Matt Kaiser discusses what happens in a federal criminal appeal and how long it takes for an appeal to take place.

If you are about to appeal a federal criminal case, or are in the middle of a federal criminal appeal, this video can give you a sense of how long the process will take.

Video Transcript:

If you are bringing an appeal from in a criminal case in federal court you want to know – you are deeply interested in knowing – how long that appeal is going to take.

First, let me just bottom line this an appeal will take a way longer than you wanted to or think it should. About a year is the benchmark I normally tell folks. Sometimes it could go a little faster, sometimes it can go slower.

Here is what has to happen: First, right after sentencing a notice of appeal is filed.

In most cases everybody has to wait for the court reporter to order transcripts – that’s why I try to tell people if you have been convicted order the transcripts in advance so you are not waiting on the court reporter to do that work.

Once that’s done the briefing schedule issues. The whole briefing process normally takes about three months in the average case with government extensions.

After the briefing is done, the court has the case. Normally about three or four months after they have the case, if they are going to order oral argument, they will do that around that timeframe.

Once oral argument is done then that panel has the case and then they decide what should happen. They don’t have any set requirement of deciding within a certain amount of time, they can take as little or as much time as they think they need. That’s why I say it's normally about a year as a benchmark. But it can be significantly more or it can be a little shorter in an appeal from a federal criminal case.

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